To be seen is to be understood
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April 12, 2026 – Second Sunday of Easter -Sunday of Divine Mercy
Readings: Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 118, R. Give thanks to the LORD for He is good, his love is everlasting.; 1 Peter 1:3-9; Gospel – John 20: 19-31
The Divine Mercy Sunday was introduced into the Church’s liturgy in 2000 by St. Pope John Paul II when he canonized St. Faustina to whom Jesus, the Divine Mercy, entrusted his messages from 1934 to 1938. The first message came in 1931, but Sisiter Faustina started her diary of messages only in July 1934. The devotion, which originated from Poland, was banned in 1959, but in the 1960s, then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla worked on validating the messages. Upon his election as Pope in 1978, we started to spread the devotion to the Divine Mercy.
Part of the messages was the request of the Lord to have the Sunday after Easter be celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday.
The context of this feast is good for us to reflect on. It may seem very mystical—the way it was established—but its essence carries a very concrete message and call to action in our present age.
The Risen Lord’s mission
The second point for our reflection is from today’s Gospel. “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you… Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
It emphasizes to us the centrality of proclaiming God’s mercy in the mission of the Church. The Risen Lord missioned his disciples in the same way he was missioned by the Father.
We share in His mission. He gave us the “grace” to enable us to do so, the gift of the Holy Spirit. And his instruction was to forgive sins. The formula of absolution beautifully expresses this.
Father of mercies
“God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself and poured out the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God grant you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
It refers to God as the “Father of mercies.” It cites the death and resurrection of the Son as what reconciled the world, the channel of God’s mercy and forgiveness. Finally, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the principle of forgiveness.
Note too that it is God who grants the “pardon and peace” through the ministry of the church to which this gift was entrusted. Then the priest absolves in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as part of the Church’s ministry.
The grace of God’s mercy is always available to us. As in all his graces, we must ask for it, open our hearts and lives to it. Grace is always available.
Making meaning out of chaos
The third and final point for reflection is the meaning of mercy. Fr. James Keenan, S.J., put it in a very clear and simple definition. Mercy is the willingness or the ability to enter the chaos of another person. Of entering another person’s chaos, journeying with the person, and helping him or her make meaning out of his or her life’s chaos.
This was so powerfully done in the Incarnation of Jesus, who emptied himself of his divinity and entered our human situation. He journeyed with us, became fully human, and experienced all that we experienced except sin. This enabled him to set out for us a path to salvation that we can travel.
And through his being God-with-us, Jesus became the channel of the Divine Mercy.
The documentary, “Francis, the People’s Pope,” described Pope Francis’ papacy in one word: “mercy.” “I think all of us long for, yearn to be seen, to be accepted, to be understood. And that’s the kind of mercy that Pope Francis promoted,” it expresses.
